Vignettes Of Sea - A Review Poem by Sathya Narayana

For those who mind rhyme and rhythm, meter and new idiom, Dr.Indira Babbellapati's VIGNETTES OF THE SEA is a real revelation. Once D.H. Lawrence who was a strong protagonist of free verse, wrote to Edward Marsh
"…..always tried to get an emotion out in its own course, without altering it……"
Dr.Indira's poetry very much reminds those words of Lawrence. Her poetry runs with effortless ease sucking the reader into her world of sea. You feel as if you are standing somewhere in the Visakhapatnam beach and watching Indira sometimes standing on a hillock with fluttering sari, glancing at the distant horizon, sometimes in knee-deep brine playing with the waves, sometimes sitting on a sand dune inclining on a battered sampan in pensive mood and so on.
In her poetry, words lose their identity and emotions overtake; beauty overwhelms and a tender spirit fills the readers' heart and makes them to go through those picturesque scenes, those delicate feelings she portrayed. In fact she didn't dwell in any fantasy nor did she try to add anything synthetic to the originality of the nature. She simply portrayed all that our eyes more than often miss that is reigning around us with great majesty; and that reality looks like a fantasy to us.
We see so many colours, feelings and emotions surrounding the sea, hitherto we never cared to notice, now spilling out of Indira's pen slowly, steadily taking you to the real beaches of a sea.
In one poem she sees the sea as her returned childhood floating on brine as splintered Moons. She sees
‘dazzling drops of quicksilver under the watchful Sun……'
She beholds the Moon ‘sink into the sea spreading the sorrow of an aching heart across the sea…'
She listens to a ‘dirge of waves…'
She wonders sometimes ‘looks like the sea today is on holiday…'
She sees everything, love, pain, emotion, relations, life, struggle etc. etc. and the way she relates sea to everything in life is marvellous.
"Never young never old
The ageless waves that know
Not day from night
Kiss the salt-beaten
Rocks as they incessantly
Rise and fall…'

The imagery looks more than realistic, even the best surrealistic effort.
‘This morning
the sea was a grey desert….'
Very much reminds the experiments made by Sri Sri with surrealism.
And see this line
‘Scorching Sun above
undulating waves below
In between the vacant me
When did we last read such great lines?
The most attractive feature of V.O.S is the foreword written by Shri Leonard Dabydeen….a great scholastic analysis by a person who could understand and enjoy the poetry of Dr.Indira wholeheartedly, in its right spirit and emotion. The all time great Telugu Anthology of Sri Sri, viz ‘Mahaprasthanam', became even more famous and popular with the unique and methodical foreword written by equally great writer of those times Sri Gudipati Venkatachalam. Shri Leonard Debydeen's foreword is no less to that. By the time you complete the book, you don't feel of having completed a good read of a poetry anthology but that you have ambled through a fascinating Picture gallery of the likes of Leonardo Da Vin Ci. So good is this book....no exaggeration at all.
For all poetry lovers, Vignettes of the sea is a must read…if you wish to enjoy page 1 till the end true post-modern poetry there is no better choice….Try it and enjoy..I guarantee the pleasure.

Sathyanarayana.